And Another Thing!
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Mark Twain has a story about his bruising encounter with newsman Horace Greely that ends with: "I could have made a very neat retort but didn't, for I was flurried and didn't think of it till I was downstairs." I often feel that way about The Scop -- no sooner do I hit "publish" then I discover something that should have been added to the piece. Well, today's post is an attempt to fix that problem. I'm revisiting a few subjects that deserve followup:
In response to my post discussing the "betrayal" of discovering Christian imagery in the Narnia books, blogger KBryna pointed out how Lewis perpetrates an even greater deception: tricking readers into thinking Turkish Delight is delicious. This is perceptive and true. I remember when my friend Laurel took a trip to Scotland and purchased a very expensive box of handmade Turkish Delight. When I learned of this, I made her promise not to try a piece until she got home. Why? Because I'm a sadist and I wanted to watch her suffer. Here's how it went down:
E-Books Round One: Why I'm Not Worried
Shortly after posting this piece, Phil Nel sent out a link to an article titled "E-Readers and the Future of Picture Books" by Jerry Griswold[1. 1. Jerry and Phil are both people I admire for their ability to make children's literature scholarship relevant to the layman reader]. Reading the article was reassuring: if Jerry Griswold isn't worried about electronic picture books, then neither am I!
E-Books Round Two: Run For Your Lives!
Earlier in the week, I googled "e-book piracy." The first image was this Kindle Pirate I drew for my post. That's because it had been used in a C-Net article titled "Kindle E-book Piracy Accelerates." The article is great, and it goes a long way toward answering some of the questions I brought up. My new dilemma: this doodle, which took me about two minutes to draw, will probably reach a wider audience than anything else I create for the rest of my life. (Sigh.)
MFA Writing Programs: Lego vs. Construx
This post was inspired by a Cathy Day article discussing a critical flaw in writing MFA programs. Since publishing her article, Day has found herself caught up in a lot of controversy. Also, my 7 year-old cousin Asher took exception to my dismissal of Lego and sent along this thoughtful response:
Nice try, kid -- but drawing a cool picture doesn't make you any less WRONG about the superiority of Construx.
Huckleberry Finn and Literary Alteration
You should be sitting down for this last one. At lunch the other day, my friend Chandra gave me the academic term for what Alan Gribben did to Huck Finn: "dynamic equivalence intralingual translation."[2. 2. I found an article online that breaks the term down: "Dynamic equivalence is based on the principle of equivalent effect, i.e. that the relationship between receiver and message should aim at being the same as that between the original receivers and the SL message" ... "intralingual translation" is simply defined as "rewording."] I defy you not to drop that sucker into your next dinner party conversation.
While I'm meta-blogging, I also want to give a special thanks to sites that have shined a light on The Scop: A Fuse #8 Production, Cockeyed Caravan, 100 Scope Notes, Fierce & Nerdy, Mr. Schu Reads, and the SDSU Children's Literature Blog to name a few. These are all fantastic blogs that you should drop everything and visit right now!
